Teens for Trump? Republicans eye gains among US youth

MILWAUKEE - Caden Schaefer-Rose will only just be 18 by the time of November's US election, but he is determined to cast his very first presidential vote -- for Donald Trump.

The high school student is among a growing number of teens defying liberal stereotypes of America's youngest voters and hopping aboard the Trump train.

"I feel like he reflects a lot of my personal values," Schaefer-Rose, wearing mirrored sunglasses, told AFP at a "Youth VoteFest" Wednesday near the Republican National Convention.

He first became aware of Trump in 2016, seeing him on television during that year's raucous campaign. Other young voters at the event said their first memory of Trump was seeing his cameo in "Home Alone 2," or as a brash boss in television's "The Apprentice."

"I kind of just connected with him," Schaefer-Rose said. "I was only eight years old at the time, but I could see that he was someone I could eventually look up to."

Same with Matthew Paley, a New Jersey 19-year-old who was playing corn hole outside the Republican convention arena.

He met his idol Trump -- "very nice dude!" -- recently in Florida and fully backs the billionaire as he seeks a White House comeback.

"Honestly in the beginning... I just liked Trump because I thought he was hilarious," said Paley.

"Then once I started doing my research, I was like 'Oh wow, alright.'"

Paley said he embraces the same "core conservative values" as Trump, including gun rights.

"And I love that he has such a strong backbone and fights for what he believes in."

America's youth have traditionally voted Democratic, and for now they largely still do. But Republicans insist a shift is afoot.

Pew Research shows that in 2016, voters under 30 supported the Democratic Party ticket by a 30-point margin. By 2020, that advantage shrank to 24 points.

The youngest voters in particular are pivotal, as studies show college student voting is rising -- and Republicans are courting them like never before.

Trump's newly announced running mate, J.D. Vance, is just 39 years old, 20 years younger than Vice President Kamala Harris.

The party invited Amber Rose, a social media influencer with 24 million followers on Instagram, to address the convention, where she endorsed Trump Monday.

And in a bid to attract young Black voters, rapper Forgiato Blow made an appearance.

- 'Limit your dreams' -

Charlie Kirk, who founded the youth-oriented grassroots conservative group Turning Point USA when he was just 18, took the convention stage this week claiming Biden's message to Gen Z is to "limit your dreams (and) be content with less."

"Donald Trump refuses to accept this fake, pathetic, mutilated version of the American dream," Kirk, 30, said to huge applause.

"This is why young men are the most conservative that they have been in 50 years."

Xavier Starks, an African-American high schooler in Wisconsin who turns 18 in August, said he is considering voting for Trump.

"I feel like Trump did do good things, but the way he's trying to run and saying 'I'm a dictator,' and how he's going to conduct himself, I don't know about that," Starks told AFP at the youth symposium.

The fact a convicted felon will be on the ballot is "pretty insane," he said. But Biden, 81, is "so old."

Well-informed young conservatives cite America's soaring national debt, shrinking home ownership prospects, bloated interest rates, and illegal immigration as reasons to back Trump.

Former US senator Heidi Heitkamp, who now heads the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics which coordinated the VoteFest, said she recognizes why young Americans might tune out to the two oldest-ever presidential nominees.

"I think they're looking at these two candidates and saying, 'Do they really understand what my concerns are?'" she said.

"I don't think there's been a lot of clarity on what that future looks like for young people." - Michael Mathes / AFP